In the coming years, autonomous vehicle (AV) technology will overcome the present challenges in motion planning and control. For example, autonomous vehicles will be able to stay in lanes, follow cars, avoid pedestrians and drive like a taxi driver patrolling the streets. Autonomous vehicles will need only to be told where to go and how to get there, making route planning critical in the AV-driven world.
Thus, as developers build core autonomy technology and start to scale their fleets of self-driving vehicles, whether for sale to individual consumers or for starting their own ride-sharing networks, they will need effective routing technology. The winners and losers in this race will be determined by which companies operate the most efficient networks with the highest vehicle utilization.